From Mir Jafar to Buxar: The Battle That Truly Decided India
Buxar in 1764 broke a Nawab, a Wazir and the Mughal emperor together, and the Diwani of 1765 made a merchant company the lawful sovereign of Bengal's revenues.
Read MorePlassey 1757: The Conspiracy That Won an Empire
Plassey was a transaction with gunfire attached: a conspiracy of generals and bankers, a rain soaked cannonade, and the treasury of Bengal as the prize.
Read MoreSiraj ud Daulah and the Fall of Calcutta
Siraj ud Daulah's grievances against Calcutta were largely just. Asserting them cost the young Nawab his capital's dignity, his throne and his life.
Read MoreClive at Arcot: Fifty Days That Made a Reputation
With five hundred men and three guns, a twenty six year old former clerk seized and held Chanda Sahib's capital for fifty days and changed the Carnatic war.
Read MoreDupleix: The Frenchman Who Wrote the Playbook of Empire
Sepoy armies, puppet rulers, subsidiary alliances: Dupleix invented every device of European empire in India, and the British captured his playbook.
Read MoreThe First Carnatic War and the Revelation at the Adyar River
At the Adyar river in 1746 a thousand French led muskets broke ten thousand of the Nawab's horsemen and revealed the secret that would conquer India.
Read MoreThe French Arrive: Pondicherry and the Compagnie des Indes
France's Compagnie des Indes built Pondicherry into the finest European town in India and pioneered every device of empire the British would later perfect.
Read MoreNadir Shah 1739: The Sack of Delhi and the Broken Spell
Nadir Shah's 1739 invasion shattered the Mughal army at Karnal, drowned Delhi in blood and carried off the Peacock Throne, breaking the spell of empire.
Read MoreThe Successor States: Bengal, Awadh and Hyderabad
Bengal, Awadh and Hyderabad were vigorous kingdoms built from Mughal provinces. Their open succession politics made kingmaking the most profitable trade in India.
Read MoreThe Empire Cracks: India After Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb died in 1707 with his empire vast on the map and hollow at the core. The dissolution that followed created the vacancy an English company would fill.
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